


Morning After

by winterwonderland



Category: Spartacus Series (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Humor, Multi, One Shot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-07-12
Updated: 2014-07-12
Packaged: 2018-02-08 12:58:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,317
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1942032
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/winterwonderland/pseuds/winterwonderland
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Hangovers, coffee, bad jokes, relationship talk, and skinny dipping.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Morning After

He smiled to himself when he heard the floorboards creaking behind him and the sound of bare feet on the wooden deck coming closer. The next thing he knew, there was already a pale-green porcelain mug hovering in front of his face.

“Hung-over?”

“I’ve had worse,” Agron answered and took the offered steaming coffee in his hand with a smile.

“Well, consider yourself lucky,” Nasir said with a smile of his own as he sat down beside Agron on the top of the stairs. “It’s like a massacre back there. I had to literally walk over Crixus to get to the kitchen.”

Agron snorted. “I think Naevia locked him out of their room after the second round of ‘I Will Always Love You’. Can’t say that I blame her.”

Nasir cringed at the memory. “Whose idea was it to bring the karaoke anyway?”

“Gannicus,” Agron answered somberly, “Trust me, he might look like he’s all fun and games on the outside, but underneath he’s nothing but a fucking sadist. Every year, he comes up with something new to torture us with. Just be glad it wasn’t strip poker this time.”

“Oh, I don’t know,” Nasir said at that and quirked an eyebrow, “that could have been fun.”

“Yeah? Well, tell me that after you’ve had to fish a half-naked Saxa out of your neighbor’s pool in the middle of the night in nothing but your underwear, because the rest of your clothes are being held ransom by a houseful of crazy people.”

Nasir chuckled, shaking his head. “And you’re still telling me that you’re all supposed to be functioning, professional adults, huh?”

“Tell me about it.”

“Well, at least there’s Spartacus. He looks too responsible to do anything too stupid.”

Agron coughed and lifted his mug back on his lips to hide a budding grin.

“What?”

“Let’s just say that after a bottle of tequila he becomes quite the avid cuddler. Which can lead to some misunderstandings the next morning...”

Nasir raised another amused eyebrow and Agron rolled his eyes in reply.

“Don’t ask how I know.”

“Better not,” Nasir said and smiled a little wider into his coffee.

They kept sipping their drinks in silence after that, enjoying the sunrise that was slowly painting the sky in orange and gold. The wind from yesterday had died during the night, and there was still some mist clinging to the air over the lake.

“Thank you,” Nasir said finally, bumping his leg gently against Agron’s, making him turn his attention back from the view.

“For what?”

“For inviting me. It means a lot.”

Agron huffed and looked away. “I just hope you had a good time,” he said quietly, still stubbornly staring at the lake.

“Well, I did.”

Agron’s hand was resting on the floorboard between them, and Nasir then let his fingers skim lightly over the still swollen knuckles. “Mostly, anyway.”

It took Agron a moment longer until he finally turned his face back to Nasir’s. His jaw was set, and a frown line was deepening on his forehead, but there was something uncharacteristically timid in the look in his eyes.

“He had it coming.”

“Probably,” Nasir answered, but there was a tiredness in his voice now that had little to do with the amount of sleep he had had, and it made Agron flinch a little inside. “But you keep on getting into fights like that and one day it’s going to end bad for you. And I don’t want to see you in hospital or jail just because there are stupid-ass fucks in this world that get you riled up.”

His hand was still resting on Agron’s, and Agron traced the side of it with his thumb.

“He _was_ an asshole, though. You heard what he said to Pietros.”

And Nasir fought back the urge to roll his eyes. “Yeah, yeah, I know. But still…” He took a steadying breath. “You do understand that you can’t just go around slamming your fist into every asshole out there, right?”

A beat of silence followed in which Nasir’s eyes grew double in size and Agron bit his lip to stifle a smile. Quickly thereafter, Nasir buried his face into Agron’s shoulder with a groan. It was way too early for this.

“That came out wrong,” he mumbled in the cotton of the other man’s t-shirt.

And Agron ruffled his hair lightly and chuckled. “Well, if it makes you feel any better, I promise I will do my best to keep my fist away from all and any assholes from now on. Since you asked so nicely and all.”

Agron’s skin was warm under the shirt, and he smelled of sleep and sweat and some obscure cologne, and Nasir had to seriously fight the sudden inexplicable urge to lick him. He sighed instead.

“Thank you.”

“It’s the least I can do. Now... about the getting-into-fights-bit, on the other hand...”

And just like that Nasir was groaning again and then, less than gently, poked the other man in the chest. “You are too much to take this early in the morning.”

Agron opened his mouth to speak, but he was swiftly interrupted by a preemptive hand covering his lips.

“I will need a gallon more coffee _and_ a pound of bacon, before I’m in any mood for your that’s-what-he-said-jokes today, okay?”

Agron raised his eyebrows, but Nasir persisted. “Okay?”

Finally Agron relented and nodded his head and Nasir slowly peeled his hand away from his mouth. He was still leaning against Agron’s shoulder and the man had his arm around him, fingers loosely tangled in his hair. And it was as if they both only then became aware of how close they really were. Agron quickly looked away from Nasir’s face and cleared his throat. The arm around Nasir’s neck dropped back to Agron’s side.

“Look, I wanted to…about last night…” Agron paused and cast his eyes to his lap. His coffee mug was resting on the step beside his feet, so he started fidgeting with the hem of his t-shirt instead. “I’m sorry if I…”

“You regret it?”

“Do you…” But Agron cut himself off abruptly and then took a deep breath before shaking his head. “No, I don’t regret it, it’s just...”

Nasir leaned his head heavily on his shoulder but said nothing in response. And Agron sighed.

“We were pretty drunk, though.”

“Yeah, we were.”

Silence fell again and lingered, and slowly Agron’s hand found its way back to Nasir’s hair, and he kept absently curling a lock of it around his finger.

“It’s just that, you and me...I wouldn’t want to fuck it all up, you know? With my track record, I’m bound to make a mess of it at some point, and I don’t want that. I want to have you in my life, and if we start…” He ran his other hand through his own hair and scratched his head. “I guess I’m just scared it might ruin what we already have.”

Nasir hummed noncommittally and rubbed his chin against Agron’s shoulder. “Or it could add a whole other dimension that wouldn’t be entirely unpleasant.” He tilted his head until he could catch Agron’s eye again. The other man was frowning at him.

“You really mean that?”

“I just think it’s worth the risk,” Nasir answered matter-of-factly and then quickly added with a wry smile, “And before you ask, no, I’m not just talking about the sex.”

Agron’s expression was becoming more unreadable by the second.

“So what _are_ you talking about?”

“Well…you and me…together…” Nasir shrugged and looked away, hoping he was coming off less insecure than he felt. He pinched a bit of Agron’s t-shirt between his fingers and pulled at it absentmindedly as he waited for the other man to say something. He was taking his sweet time.

“ _Together_ together?” Agron asked, finally. And maybe it was a stupid question, but things were moving a little too quickly for him to keep up. And he still wasn’t perfectly convinced that this conversation was anything else but a figment of his over-eager imagination.

Nasir bit his lip and tugged at Agron’s shirt a little more. “Um...Well, that’s where I was going with that, yeah.” And maybe his delivery could have been more eloquent, but if it was too early for fisting jokes, then it sure as hell was too early for any serious relationship talk.

“But what if we fuck it up?” Agron could hear his own voice cracking slightly, and he winced and cursed inwardly at the same time. But it was the sudden strain in his tone that had Nasir finally raise his eyes back to him again.

“What if we don’t?”

The stare held, and just as it was getting to the point where Nasir thought he might just crawl out of his skin if it lasted any longer, he could see Agron’s lips slowly pull up into a smile.

“God,” he said, letting out a big breath. And then he smiled a little wider, and then even wider still, and Nasir’s stomach suddenly decided to grow wings. “...You have no idea how long I’ve wanted to hear you s–”

But he never got to finish the sentence, as Nasir was already leaning in and then shut him up the most efficent way he knew how.

They were both quickly losing track of time along with any extra oxygen in their system, when suddenly the sound of someone clearing their throat behind them had them pull apart. Agron turned his head back and had to blink a little at the sunlight reflecting from the windows. Still, Barca’s tall frame was not difficult to make out even with the light behind him.

“I was just going to say sorry again for that whole room-switcheroo last night, but I’m starting to think there’s nothing to apologize for.”

Nasir cleared his throat and scrambled off of Agron’s lap, adjusting the waist of his shorts as he sat down on the floor again.

“Uh...right,” Agron said and in turn smoothed down the front of his t-shirt, “I’m sure we can find it in our hearts to forgive you.” He caught Nasir’s eye and saw that he, too, was biting the side of his mouth to keep his grin in check.

Barca huffed out a laugh and then walked over and sat down on the deck between them, forcing Agron to scoot over to the side.

“It is a lovely morning, isn’t it?”

Agron couldn’t help shooting him a look. “It was.”

But Barca kept on smiling undeterred. “You know what I would really feel like doing right now?”

“Going back inside?” Agron asked hopefully

“Going for a swim,” Barca answered instead.

“A swim?”

Not only was it barely 7 a.m. but it also was not much more than 60 degrees outside. Agron looked over to Nasir for back-up, but the other man just gave him a shrug that seemed to say, “your friend, your problem.”

“What is this I hear about a swim?” Saxa’s voice rang out from behind them, and Agron buried his face in his hands with a groan. Nasir chuckled, and Barca turned back with an eager smile.

“You game, girl?”

“I’m always game for some skinny dipping, handsome,” she answered with a wink and quickly pushed past them to walk down the steps, leading Belesa by the hand after her.

“I didn’t say...” Barca began, but at that point the two women were already half-way down the pier, and Saxa was waving her t-shirt over her head triumphantly.

“Chickens!” she shouted out with a taunting laugh and then dived gracefully – and very nakedly – into the water.

“Oh, fuck it,” Barca muttered and got to his feet and started after her down to the pier, leaving Nasir and Agron behind with matching expressions of shock on their faces.

And then Nasir decided to have a little fun of his own, and he turned to the other man and quirked his eyebrow up teasingly. “So, how about it...”

Agron held his hand up, horrified. “No, no, no, no...”

“What? Scared of a little nudity, are you? All talk and no action, huh?”

“I’m not–”

“What the fuck are all you doing up in the middle of the night?”

“Skinny dipping,” Agron answered dejectedly as he turned around to face the man, not having the energy to be surprised by further interruptions any longer. Not even by Gannicus who normally should be in bed, nursing a hangover for another six hours or so. Apparently, for the first time in human history the whole house would be up before 8 a.m., and of course it had to be _this_ morning of all mornings.

“You don’t say...” Gannicus said, and stopped at the edge of the deck, peering out at the lake, “Then why in hell are we still standing here?” And with a pat on Agron’s shoulder he, too, descended down the stairs, shedding what little clothing he had on as he went. “Enjoy the view, boys!”

Agron sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose, closing his eyes. _And this is why you can’t have nice things_ , he thought ruefully, _because you spend your time with moment-ruining, weird-ass exhibitionists who..._

He felt Nasir’s hand on his arm and finally looked over, though with slight trepidation still, but was met with a soft smile.

“Look, why don’t we come to a compromise, huh?”

“Compromise?”

Agron frowned, and Nasir smiled a little wider and leaned in closer. Teasing was all well and good, but then there were some things that were infinitely better.

“Compromise,” he repeated and started running his finger along the length of Agron’s arm as he continued, “We’ll both get naked, but...”

“But?”

“We’ll do it in there instead.” And he gave a nod of his head towards the house behind them.


End file.
